UKC

The Rab CWIF takes place this weekend and for its 10th year The Climbing Works have gone BIG with a pretty spectacular lineup. The field contains regular World Cup finalists likes Jan Hojer, Sean Mc Coll, current British Bouldering champion Tyler Landman, Rustam Gelmanov & Melissa LeNeve while we've also got Jorg Verhoeven & Jimmy Webb coming inside to compete to become The Rab CWIF 2016 Champion and win their share of £10,000 in cash!

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In reply to UKC News:

The points about the average scores creeping up (3) and (7) having to flash all the female final problems to win don't make sense. Surely this is a function of the route setting more than anything else?

With such a strong field in the men's the route setters will simply up the difficulty rather than risk a 5 way draw (for example) and a boring final where the winner is calculated from countback from the previous rounds.

In reply to stp:

Not sure about (7), but I agree with you on (3). The data in that chart suggests to me that the routes were simply set slightly easier in 2014, not that there was some unexplained increase in quality amongst contestants. Though I guess there's no way of knowing.

Great post though - thanks UKC!

In reply to stp:

Who's your money on though? I am clueless with the Men's, it's hard to predict with so many big names. Women's I'd go Shauna, but would like to place out outside bet on Michaela simply because she's on exceptional form currently (and is the ultimate comp wild card).

In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

ok here goes my 1,2,3 shout....

Men: Hojer, McColl, Webb
Women: Coxsey, La Neve, Klingler

Of course, I reserve the right to completely change my opinion at any time until 21:30 this Sunday....

In reply to Birdo:

Men: I'm going to go the same as you (unimaginative though that is on my part)

Women: I'll go Coxey, Tracy, Klinger (Melissa has never done that well in the CWIF from recollection)

I'll get our Developer to add some form of 'Gambling Premier Post' and we'll be good to go

In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

It's so hard to say with the men. And that's what makes it so exciting.

If there aren't too many hard crimp problems then Hojer or Webb. But Hojer is not so good on small holds. I'd like to see Gelmanov do well and he's really good with small holds. But then apparently Tyler is in good shape and McColl is a very consistent performer. So basically I have no clue.

For the women its a shame because Shauna is out on her own and a firm favourite. Too bad there weren't more international women competing. The fight for second place will perhaps be more interesting though: Michaela vs Melissa Le Neve or Tara Hayes??

Was at the Works yesterday and the new paint job on the comp wall looks ace.

In reply to UKC News:

Ace article Rob! I have no idea who'll be taking the top spot with so much talent flying around the place.

Just a quick note though, is it just me or is the 4th thing we should know missing? Maybe you need to hire me as a proofreader :P

In reply to UKC News:

Men:
Rustam, Hojer, Webb

Women:
Coxsey, Tracey, Thompson-Smith.
Mellisa's not having a great run at the moment...

In reply to stp:


Agreed, I was in Thursday and it does look brilliant. Also, even for the Works, there were a lot of wads in.

In reply to Durbs:


She came second last week in the French Boulder Championships.

In reply to UKC News:

Results after two of the 3 qualification rounds (these 2 rounds included most/all of the top climbers):

Men
1 McColl Sean CAN
2 Gelmanov Rustam RUS
3 Verhoeven Jorg NED
4 Barrans David GBR
5 Rugens Rolands LAT
6 Roberts Aidan GBR
7 Pope Jim GBR
8 Webb Jimmy USA
8 Cousins Matthew GBR
10 Noble James GBR
11 Phillips Nathan GBR
12 Ometz Baptiste SUI
13 O'Connor Daragh IRL
14 Firnenburg David GER
15 Scarperi Stefan ITA
16 Khazanov Alex ISR
17 Landman Tyler GBR
18 Hojer Jan GER
19 Bosi William GBR
20 Watson Adam

Women
1 Klingler Petra SUI
2 Coxsey Shauna GBR
3 Tracy Michaela GBR
4 Le Neve Melissa FRA
5 Crane Leah GBR
6 Caulier Chloé BEL
7 Kümin Andrea SUI
8 Bärtschi Natalie SUI
9 Hayes Tara GBR
10 Späte Jara SUI
11 Peet Gill GBR
12 Slaney Hannah GBR
13 Morris Abigail GBR
14 Bacmeister Ellie GBR
14 Remškar Ajda SLO
16 Thompson-Smith Molly GBR
17 Watterson Victoria GBR
18 Schwab Tabea SUI
19 Langenkamp Noemi SUI
20 Zijlstra Vera NED

In reply to UKC News:

Well I thought that was an absolute top event. Anyone who thinks climbing comps are boring must not have been to a decent comp is all I can think. This year's CWIF was super well organized, had great route setting, a wonderful atmosphere and some brilliant climbing. Highlights for me were Sean McColl's first and only ascent of problem 3 which he seemed to do most of the moves facing out. And Rustam Gelmanov's amazing multi dynamic move ascent of problem 4. Both these elicited huge cheers from the crowd as did much else during the 2 hour final.

Big thanks to the Climbing Works for putting such a great event on.

In reply to stp:
Possibly the best bouldering competition I have seen in many years!

Some amazing displays of talent!

In reply to UKC News:

A top event as usual, great competitors and a fantastic spectacle. The actual footage wasn't as good as i'd hoped and for once i thought Liam Lonsdale was rubbish.

In reply to UKC News:

I guess Jan Hojer might have done better if he hadn't spent Friday morning doing The Ace! Though frankly he didn't seem to find it that hard.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

It was interesting watching those guys. In the qualifier I saw Jan fall off a vertical problem. Then Jimmy Webb went next and I thought he'd cruise it but he fell too. While they were waiting for another go not one, but two British women (I don't even know which ones, but none of the top group) flashed the problem fairly easily.

I saw Rustam do quite a few of the harder problems in the qualifier, that is problems that I saw most people fail on. What was impressive was not simply that he did them first try but that he did them with ease. He repeated this in the semis too on one problem that had seen few ascents, Percy, commentating, said he made it look like a warm up. Both he and Sean McColl deserved their place on the podium, able to excel at a variety of different problem types I thought.

In reply to stp:

I thought it was a fantastic comp, even though I wasn't able to be there and had to watch it online. The routesetters did a remarkable job in judging exactly how hard to make each problem, almost without exception, while keeping them all very different and interesting; that's pretty rare.
Well done guys.

Oh, and well done competitors
Particularly Shauna - rarely have I seen a top-level comp where one climber is so dominant.

In reply to UKC News:

Some photos of the comp here: http://bit.ly/1ppBWb5

In reply to stp:


Totally agree. I watched the World Championship in Munich in 2014, where both men's and women's finals came down to number of attempts on the last problem, and Jule Wurm won in front of a home crowd. Fantastic atmosphere, great fun.

I would watch one live again, but only if it was bad weather or I had family commitments. I wouldn't miss a weekend's climbing for it.